


Ignition Bomb

by rauqthetommo



Series: Crossfire [17]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Aftermath of Car Accident, Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Canon Divergence - No Pennywise, Caring Richie Tozier, Cliffhangers, Death, Death Threats, Declarations Of Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, General Shit Hitting the Fan, Gore, Graphic descriptions of violence, Hitman AU, Intrusive Thoughts, Love Confessions, M/M, Mentions of Car Accidents, Mentions of Gun Violence, Mentions of Juvie, Mentions of Murder/Death, Mentions of Violence, Mentions of dead parents, Minor Patricia Blum Uris/Stanley Uris, Murder, OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Patricia Blum Uris is a Good Friend, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Sensitive Richie Tozier, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Soft Richie Tozier, Threats, Threats of Violence, Violence, murder/death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:07:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24237763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rauqthetommo/pseuds/rauqthetommo
Summary: Following the events of Sweeper Shotgun:Things at the Meyer Party take a dark turn.An excerpt from this work:The file that Bill had given to Richie and Eddie specified that Meyer needed to be taken out while he was alone, so when the party hit full swing, they needed to be close on his tail and ready whenever he stepped away.Eddie and Patty returned after about 20 minutes, Patty slipping back into Stanley’s arms and Eddie handing a Manhattan over to Richie. “You got me your drink?” Richie asked, sipping it lightly, trying hard not to recoil at the taste.“Don’t be a baby,” Eddie rolled his eyes, taking a large gulp from his own glass.“We should probably find Meyer,” Richie leaned over to whisper in Eddie’s ear.“Yeah,” He agreed, slamming the rest of his drink. “C’mon.” He grabbed Richie’s hand in his.“Have fun, boys.” Stanley said to them.“Be safe,” Patty added.Richie winked at them as Eddie led him out of the library and back into the crowd of the party.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Patricia Blum Uris/Stanley Uris
Series: Crossfire [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1658356
Comments: 3
Kudos: 50





	Ignition Bomb

**Author's Note:**

> There is a lot of gore in this chapter, so be warned if you have issues with blood. 
> 
> Also sorry for the cliffhanger.

“You doing ok, Eddie?” Patty asked. Mike had gotten distracted talking to someone, so Eddie had followed Patty while she stepped outside to make her phone call. They now stood together on the back patio, Patty still swirling the drink Stan had brought her in her hand. “You seem a little wound up, sweetie.”

“I’m ok,” Eddie nodded, taking a deep breath. “I’m just a little anxious.” He shrugged and fished his inhaler out of his pocket. “I’ve never been to a party like this.”

_Inhaler._

_I am, if you’d shut up._ Eddie sprayed his aspirator down his throat, twice, before recapping it and tucking it away in his pocket.

“They aren’t so bad.” Patty shrugged. “Stan and I used to go to parties like this all the time when we were dating.”

“How’d you meet?”

“I’m college,” Patty sighed. “Stanley would have made such a great doctor, Eddie.” She frowned. “I wish things had been different.”

“What happened?” Eddie asked.

Patty frowned. “His mother was killed in a fire fight downtown. He grew up around here, just him and his parents. Her death hit him very hard, and he wanted so badly to get back at the people that killed her. That’s how we met Bill. I’m sure Richie told you Bill used to be a hitman.” Eddie nodded. “Yes, well, he’s who Stanley hired to take care of things for him.” Patty shrugged. “He never went back to school after that. Then, one day, Bill showed up at our house with a bullet in his kidney and a job offer for Stan; work for him, help his men out with medical supplies and medical attention when they needed it, and Bill would cut us in to all of the jobs he accepted.” Patty ran her hand through her hair. “Stan took the job, and here we are.”

“Were you upset?”

Patty sighed through her nose, downing the rest of her drink. “At first. But not with Stanley, really. I understood why he did what he did. He and his mother were very close, and this is a fucked up world we live in, Eddie.” She glanced over to him. “But I don’t need to tell you that.” She twisted her wedding ring around her finger. “I was upset at the world for fucking him over. He’s such a good man, Eddie, he doesn’t deserve all of the shit that’s happened to him.”

“I’m sorry,” Eddie said. And he was. He really liked Stan and Patty, they were always so kind to him. He thought back to after the accident, when Patty had brought him a coffee and sat with him in the living room.

“I wasn’t worried for a second.” She’d told him. “You seemed like a real fighter.” He’d even let her brush his hair behind his ear, because she’d been so sweet to him, and it made him think that that was what it would have been like to have a mother, someone that cared about him and took care of him when he got hurt or sick.

“Thank you,” Patty’s voice brought him back to the present.

“You and Stanley have been so nice to me,” Eddie said. “And I know you’ve always been nice to Richie too. He talks about you guys a lot.”

Patty smiled. “Richie is an amazing person. He’s too good for this shitty world and this shitty job.”

Eddie nodded. He agreed. He wondered what Richie would have been like if his parents hadn’t died, if Andy had never left him, if his neighbor’s kid hadn’t been murdered. What would Richie be like if he hadn’t been so fucked over by life that it forced him into a life of secrecy and crime. “I care about Richie a lot.” Eddie said, just because it was true.

Patty smiled again. “He cares about you, too.”

***

The file that Bill had given to Richie and Eddie specified that Meyer needed to be taken out while he was alone, so when the party hit full swing, they needed to be close on his tail and ready whenever he stepped away.

Eddie and Patty returned after about 20 minutes, Patty slipping back into Stanley’s arms and Eddie handing a Manhattan over to Richie. “You got me your drink?” Richie asked, sipping it lightly, trying hard not to recoil at the taste.

“Don’t be a baby,” Eddie rolled his eyes, taking a large gulp from his own glass.

“We should probably find Meyer,” Richie leaned over to whisper in Eddie’s ear.

“Yeah,” He agreed, slamming the rest of his drink. “C’mon.” He grabbed Richie’s hand in his.

“Have fun, boys.” Stanley said to them.

“Be safe,” Patty added.

Richie winked at them as Eddie led him out of the library and back into the crowd of the party.

***

Meyer was easy enough to find, as he was walking around and mingling with pretty much everyone. Eddie had caught a glimpse of Damien Hayes while they tailed Meyer through the kitchen. He was leaning against the counter with his arm around his wife, Shondra, drinking a beer. His son Maxus, whom Eddie had met in juvie, was there too. They nodded at each other when they made eye contact.

After following Meyer for about an hour, he finally broke away from the pack, trotting up the stairs and disappearing down the hall towards his study. Richie and Eddie decided to split up, Eddie following Meyer up the main staircase and Richie looping around the back to use the servant’s entrance through the kitchen.

Eddie made sure to tiptoe the whole way down the hall, just in case someone else was up there going to the bathroom or something, but the entire second floor was quiet, the music from the main floor vibrating the hardwood and shaking the soles of Eddie’s dress shoes.

He kept his gun, his silenced pistol, tucked away in the inside of his jacket pocket, ready to pull it when he needed.

He’d studied the layout of the house on the map Bill had given him until it was practically engrained on the backs of his eyelids. The study was at the end of the main hallway, tucked away behind the master bedroom and the billiards room, and the door was cracked when Eddie got there. Inside was quiet, not a peep coming from within, so Eddie took that as a good sign and as confirmation that Meyer was probably alone. He waited a few seconds before pushing the door open slowly, gun already raised in preparation.

The study was huge, bigger than Eddie’s whole apartment, with huge bookcases lining the walls. A grand hickory desk sat in the middle of the room, directly in front of a floor-to-ceiling window, with a massive leather chair behind it. The chair was turned around, back to the door, looking directly out the window. Eddie thought about shooting through the back of the chair, but he wanted to make sure that Meyer was actually in the chair before he wasted a bullet.

He crept around the front of the desk, gun still raised, but nearly dropped it when he rounded the corner of the desk and saw Meyer.

He was dead, throat slit wide open, blood running down the front of his party suit. A knife was stabbed into his chest, displaying a photo, as if Meyer was a bulletin board and the picture was a lost pet poster. The photo was of Richie, arm slung around Eddie’s waist as they walked away from the accident scene the night of the Allen Job. Written directly over the photo in red sharpie, was the word  **_LIAR_ ** .

Eddie blinked hard, hoping that when he opened his eyes, everything would be gone. He’d just been seeing things. Meyer wasn’t really even there, he was off somewhere else in the house and Richie was taking care of it, but no. No matter how many times he blinked, the same scene was always laid out before him.

Eddie’s eyes shifted down to Meyer’s lap, in which sat a Manila folder. He set his gun down on the desk and popped open the folder. Inside was a recounting of the Allen Job, from the perspective of whoever had really killed him, including a few notes written about how Richie had taken the credit for the kill. There was no mention of Eddie in the file, although he was just as guilty as Richie was. His stomach dropped as he read on. Whoever had really killed Allen had been hired by Meyer. According to the file, the two of them had been working together behind Hayes’s back for years to try and build their own empire (they’d even been working together when Allen had stolen Hayes’s heroin the year before), and when Meyer didn’t need Allen anymore, he’d taken out a hit on him. After Allen had escaped Richie and Eddie, he’d ridden on like nothing could possibly happen, completely unaware of the remote bomb that Meyer had planted in the SUV to begin with. Meyer had killed Allen, and when he found out that the men Damien hired were taking credit for it, he’d bragged to Damien about how his men couldn’t be trusted. Damien was so angry over the whole situation, he’d hired the very same hitman that Meyer had, to kill Meyer himself.

Eddie swallowed hard as he realized that none of this was for him. It was for Richie. And Damien had seen Richie there, he knew that they were at the party. Richie was in danger, because whoever had killed Allen had killed Meyer, and could still be there.

The door swung open and Eddie scrambled for his gun, firing a single shot out before he could even think about it. “Jesus, Eds!” Richie hissed, closing the door behind himself, eyes wide as he looked at the hole in the bookcase next to his head. “What the fuck?”

“Richie, we have to go.” Eddie shook his head and pocketed his gun.

“What?” Richie stepped forward. “What do you mean? Did you kill Meyer?”

“No, look.” Eddie spun the desk chair around to face Richie, watching him recoil.

“What the fuck?” He spit.

“Richie, _look_.” Eddie snatched the photo off of Meyer’s chest and thrust it forward, picking up the file folder while Richie examined the photo.

“What is this?” Richie turned the photo over in his hands, eyebrows pulled together.

“Damien knows we lied about killing Paul Allen.”

“What?!” Richie hissed, photo falling from his hands as he looked up at Eddie. “What are you talking about? How do you know?”

“Here,” Eddie handed him the file, glancing back at Meyer’s corpse while Richie looked it over.

“No,” Richie shook his head, lower lip quivering. “No, Eds, I don’t—“ When he looked up his eyes were wet, tears threatening to spill over. “Eds—“

“We need to go,” Eddie slapped the file out of Richie’s hands. “Now, Rich.”

Richie opened and closed his mouth a few times, not understanding, not grasping was was happening. He shook his head, licked his lips, pushed his glasses up, but he didn’t fucking move, seemingly frozen in his spot, as if his shoes were full of concrete suddenly. “Eddie, I don’t—“

“Richie.” Eddie took Richie’s face in his hands, forcing him to look up. “ _Now_.”

***

_You need to ditch Richie, this is bad, he’s putting you in danger, Hayes is after him, he’s gonna get you killed, you need to ditch him, leave him behind, pack up and leave, go far away and start a new life somewhere, Paris, Dublin, Moscow, Ontario, Miami, Alaska—_

_I can’t abandon Richie, he needs my help._

“How can I make this any clearer?” Richie snapped into his phone. “Damien Hayes knows we fucking lied, Bill!”

Richie and Eddie had practically sprinted out of Meyer’s house, collecting Richie’s mustang from the valet and taking off. Richie had let Eddie drive, as he was still pretty shaken up, and Eddie was taking them to his apartment. If whoever this was was after Richie, they surely already knew where he lived and might be waiting there for him. Eddie hadn’t seen his own name anywhere in the file that they’d found with Meyer’s corpse, so he had to just assume whoever it was didn’t care about him or didn’t know about him.

_Inhaler._

_No._

_Inhaler._

_I said no, goddamnit._

“Yes, Bill!” Richie groaned. “Yes! He fucking knows, man! I saw it with my own goddamn eyes! He’s going to fucking kill me, Bill!” He paused, and Eddie could hear Bill’s urgent stuttering through the phone. “With Eddie.” Another pause. “No,”

_Inhaler._

_No._

_Faggot._

_Stop._

_You need to get out Eddie, you’re too close to Richie, he’s putting you in danger, he touched you with his filthy hands, he’s going to get you killed._

_I’ll be fine._

_Inhaler._

_No._

“No, Bill.” Richie said again.

_What happened to being an island, Eddie? When you were alone no one could hurt you. You’re too deep, too attached._

_Richie is just my friend. Friends help friends._

_More than friends._

_No._

_Inhaler._

_No._

_You let him cum inside of you. That isn’t what friends do._

Eddie’s chest felt like it was full of wet sand. He could barely breathe. His brain was right, as much as he didn’t want to admit it. Everything that was happening could have been avoided if he hadn’t gotten so close to Richie. He thought back to the first time they had sex, back in his car. If he had just driven Richie home after the hit, they never would have made up, they never would have had sex, they never would have gotten close. Bill probably would have dropped Eddie at Richie’s insistence and Eddie could have coasted by on his floor safe savings until Beverly came back or he found someone else to employ him. But now he was stuck. He was stuck with Richie and with Bill and with Stan and Patty because he’d gotten too close, too involved. This was bad.

_You fucked up._

“We’re going to his place,” Richie said. “Yes.” He scoffed. “I don’t really have a lot of options right now, Big Bill.” He paused again. “Ok,” He nodded. “Ok, yes. Tomorrow then. I’ll see you there. Bye.”

“What did Bill say?” Eddie asked quietly.

_You fucked up you fucked up you fucked up you fucked—_

“We’re going to meet for lunch tomorrow and talk.” He sighed and rubbed his eyes under his glasses. “Try and figure something out. I don’t know.”

_You fucked up you fucked up you fucked up—_

“So we’re just going back to mine for now?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Richie shook his head. “Jesus, fuck, Eds, this is a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation.”

_Inhaler._

_No._

“Yeah,” Eddie coughed once, trying hard to steady his breathing.

_Inhaler._

_No._

“At least I have you, though.” Richie said quietly, resting his hand on Eddie’s thigh.

_You fucked up._

***

Bill had been annoyed on the phone, as if any of this was Richie’s fault. Ok, fine, he’d fucked up the Marian hit, and the Allen job, but fucking Bill was the one that told him to lie about killing Allen! And now what? What could they possibly do now that would change anything?

Richie tried to sleep but he couldn’t. Eddie was acting weird too, shifty and quiet, falling asleep with his back to Richie instead of curled up on his chest. That wasn’t like him. Richie tried to settle himself down, tell himself it was just the stress of learning that he was a dead man fucking walking, but he wasn’t so sure.

Richie sighed, rubbing at his eyes with the heels of his hands. He realized he’d probably have better luck at trying to fall asleep if he was actually laying down instead of sitting up against the headboard, but he was too restless. As it was, he was drumming his fingers against his thighs at a ridiculously fast speed, just trying to work out some of his anxiety, but it wasn’t really working.

He leaned over Eddie’s sleeping form and grabbed his inhaler off the nightstand, taking two quick puffs of it before just cradling it in his hands. He liked using Eddie’s inhaler, it usually calmed him down, because it made him think of Eddie and that made his heart swirl, but it wasn’t as calming as it usually was. Richie sighed, annoyed, and tossed the aspirator down onto his bedside table. Eddie mumbled something in his sleep and burrowed deeper into his pillow.

Richie raked his hand through his hair, folding up his glasses and dropping them next to Eddie’s inhaler. He then slid down in bed, turning onto his side and wrapping himself around Eddie, burying his face in his hair.

He almost started crying, holding Eddie there. He was so warm and so soft and he smelled so good, so comforting, so like Eddie, that it made Richie’s heart pang. He needed to figure this out, if for no other reason than to keep Eddie safe. Whoever was after him would surely come after Eddie next, as he’d also lied to Hayes about the Allen job, and Richie didn’t want to risk that. He’d do anything to keep Eddie safe. “I love you so much, Eddie.” Richie whispered to him, pressing a kiss to the back of his neck. “I love you and I’ll do anything to keep you safe.” He pulled Eddie closer to him. “I’m going to figure this out, Eddie, I swear. For us. I’m gonna do this for us, Eddie, that’s how much I fucking love you.”

Eddie sighed in his sleep, turning over in Richie’s arms and cuddling into his chest. “Rich,” He mumbled.

Richie did start crying, then, face pressed into Eddie’s hair, holding him flush to his body. “I love you, Eddie.” He whispered to him again. “I love you.”

“Rich,” Eddie sighed in his sleep, settling against Richie, breathing evening out as he slipped deeper into sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me anywhere! My handle for everything is @rauqthetommo! Feel free to ask me questions at all on my tumblr!


End file.
